We have made some significant changes to improve the functionality and experience for private chats (My Room feature in the 3D Chat client). We have been testing the changes with many customers and have been incorporating their input and feedback into the project.

The new process continues to allow our customers to enjoy private chats while making significant improvements to our internal infrastructure and code that supports our 3D Chat.

The client code has always had two back end systems for chat: one for rooms and one for private chats started through invites. The rooms system is reliable, but the private chats system is unreliable and has several known bugs. To improve the reliability of chat, we now only have one chat system in the back end.

The private chat improvements solve various issues that our customers used to have with the feature. Specifically:

1) all participants will see same exact room set up when in a chat versus different views (User A sees a table in one spot while User B sees it in another etc)
2) chat invites will be received in a more reliable manner versus seeing them as missed chat invites later (User A is online but does not see the chat invite sent by User B and then later sees it as a missed invite)
3) chance of getting stuck at "50% loaded room" stage will be minimal

We can offer a more consistent and stable private chat experience to our customers and while paving the way for future features and enhancements related to chatting.

The new experience has been available in the 3D Chat client versions 490.14 and up and will be included in our new version 491.0 on Tuesday, August 13th. Please download it here when available:

Please note that if you are chatting with someone else in a private chat, both of you will have to be on the same version of the client to experience the changes.

What are the main changes?

Different rooms needed for separate & simultaneous chats:

You will need to use different rooms from your collection (inventory) for having simultaneous but separate private chats. Same room scene (shell) can not be used for having two separate chats at the same time.

Example: If I invite user A to a private chat and want to invite user B in a separate chat then I can do so as long as I own 2 room scenes. If I want to invite a 3rd user for a separate chat at the same time but do not have a third room then I will have to either close one of the ongoing chats or buy a new room.

If you have My Room already open and then try to invite someone from the friends tool on the homepage or your friends list, you will be given the option to invite them into any of your other rooms. If you wanted to invite that person in the room you are already in then of course you can do so from within the room.

Changing room scenes

If you are in a private chat and you or any other participant want to change the room scene, that scene will still open in the same tab and you can continue your conversation without any interruption. You can however only change to a room that is not already in use for another private chat at the same time.

Booting and Auto-closing of private chats:

Booting is now available in private chats. As a room owner, you can choose to boot any participant in your private chat.

If a host of a private chat leaves the room then that room will close automatically in 2 minutes. The participants in the chat will see a message at intervals during that 2 minute period warning them of the room closure.

Of course, if the host decides to re-join the chat within that 2 minute interval, they can do so and still have all other participants in the chat.

Other participants can also choose to continue their chat as long as one of them switches the scene to one of their own rooms during the 2-minute auto-closure warning period.

UPDATE: Effective version 491.4, VIP users have an option to NOT have their private chats auto-close when they leave. The option for this is available in the client settings menu. Check here for details.

Location of message dialogs inside chat:

Message dialogs shown inside a room regarding invite notifications, loading products etc have been moved to the right side of the screen so that they do not get obscured by the room tools.

Room cards:

Private rooms will also have a room card that will show the list of occupants - but only to those who are invited into that chat. Private chats are still that - private. The room card is not seen by anyone else.

GA versus AP:

GA users cannot be invited into a AP room for a private chat.

When you click on My Room, it will still open the room you have set as your default. As a reminder this is how you can set your default room:

We hope you enjoy this improved private chat functionality.

Last edited by Varsha on Mon Sep 02, 2013 4:02 pm; edited 7 times in total

It sounds like IMVU has made some very interesting improvements. I can't wait to give it a try and check out these improvements. These needs have been here for a long time. I'm happy to see that they are finally being addressed.

so basically in regards to the poll althhough that many have said they were totally against any changes to private chats imvu went ahead and didn't listen to its end users and is just going to do it anyhow? well imvu thank you for not listening to the larger part of those who have suggested that it be left alone i am gal dto see i belong to something that no longer listens to its end users i think it is time to really think long and hard about this because the way things are going imvu has no longer become a easy to get around place and never listens to its end users have a great day thanks for the discouraging information

well that does not seem like a good idea when switching a room, but I do like the fact u can boot someone out of private chat, before u had to deal with the person if they causing trouble or just leave your own room, very nice improvement on that part

While the public rooms I do like, and the private I like the booting power because of how fights tend to break out and such. I don't like how the room closes after minutes of the person leaving the room. They can't touch our rooms, they can't change them or anything so what is the point in closing when they don't have to be? Why kick them out of a private chat just because someone leaves that is the host? Ridiculous if you ask me since I tend to crash during big storms and that would ruin it.

PLEASE, do not go through with this so many people are opposed to this new update and IMVU is just fine the way it is now. Over the years I feel that IMVU is slowly getting worse by taking things off that were such a big hit with so many people. I'm not sure how many people want this update to go through but please, see what the greater majority of IMVU wants.